Insurer turnaround times are one of the quieter pressure points in the broker channel. They are less headline-grabbing than premium hikes or capacity squeezes but increasingly shaping how brokers deliver for clients on a day-to-day basis.
Roger Abel (pictured), managing director of Rothbury Insurance Brokers, said the lag between when brokers ask insurers for answers and when those answers actually land can extend longer than it should - and brokers are the ones absorbing the gap.
"I don't think that turnaround times are the biggest challenge but they continue to test our people,” said the Auckland-based MD. “Insurers' systems, processes, and underwriting mean that you can receive information from insurers later than expected.”
Turnaround times don't dominate the risk register the way premium increases or hardening capacity do. They sit a layer below as a chronic operational drag rather than an acute crisis and they are increasingly defining how clients experience their insurance program.
Abel is clear that the delays aren't random. They are a downstream consequence of what insurers are doing inside their own businesses and, he argued, that is where brokers are spending more of their time covering the gap.
"Often it's those insurer turnaround times that affect our delivery to clients, and that's usually a reflection of what's happening within their own business - whether that's a strategic reset, technology changes or resourcing shifts," he said.
That diagnosis will likely resonate across the broker market. The past two years have seen carriers across New Zealand and Australia restructure underwriting teams, migrate to new policy administration platforms, redraw appetite statements and shed or relocate staff. Each of those moves has knock-on effects for the brokers feeding submissions, endorsements and renewals into the system - and for the SME and corporate clients waiting at the other end.
The problem for brokers is that clients don't see the strategic reset or the technology migration. They see a quote that hasn't landed, an endorsement that hasn't issued, or a claim acknowledgement that's slower than they expected. And they call their broker.
The pressure is sharpest at the claims end of the business, where volume amplifies every delay. Rothbury alone handles many thousands of claims a year and at that scale, friction is inevitable.
"We have about 18,000 claims a year coming through the business, so a big part of our role is being an advocate for the client," he said. "With that volume, there will always be cases that stall - whether that's with the insurer or where further information or explanation is needed."
Read next: Turnaround times – new business
The brokerage's response, Abel said, is structural rather than reactive - a deliberate set of internal processes designed to keep claims moving even when insurer responses don't.
"In those situations, we've got strong internal support, a clear escalation process, and we can also draw on Steadfast claims triage if needed," he said.
Network-level claims triage and escalation pathways are becoming a more visible part of the value proposition - particularly for mid-market brokerages whose clients often compare service experience as closely as they compare price.
Abel is also said the responsibility doesn't sit entirely with insurers. Turnaround time, in practice, is a chain and brokers can only move as fast as the slowest link, which is sometimes the client themselves.
"Turnaround times can create pressure - and sometimes the challenge is also getting information back from clients in a timely way," he said.
Brokers chasing underwriters for answers are often, in turn, being chased by their own teams for information that hasn't yet come back from the insured. The result is a three-way negotiation in which the broker is the only party with a complete view of where things are stuck. This helps define the broker’s job.
"Our role as a broker is to smooth that experience and give more consistent delivery to clients," he said.
With insurers in flux and clients less tolerant of friction, the brokerage that can absorb shocks - and quietly keep the file moving - is the one that wins the renewal.
